How should I cook for winter?

[Iscariot]

 

So, first winter, I've starved to death once (It was because I was fool, not because I lack food. I tried to conserve food, took damage from a ram, and died from the later hunger since I only had like 3 of the little bars.)

Anyways! I have about 35 things of meat. 16 can get me four servings of hefty stew, but I can get 8 servings of normal stew if I just use 2 slots.

I also have some turnips I could add. Should I try to compact everything into one meal, or have multiple smaller meals in my crocks?

[Michael Gates]

Cook just the meat, 4 servings of hefty stew at a time and crock it. If you've got the beeswax or fat, seal the crocks. Meat lasts longer AFTER it's cooked, veggies last longer BEFORE they're cooked (raw turnips stay good all winter in a storage vessel), so you cook the meat now and hold off on the turnips until you plan to eat them.

For future reference, if you're herding animals and have them penned, it's wise to divide the pen so you can close off some of the herd and cull just those. Killing everything at once leaves you with no breeding stock, and that huge pile of fast-rotting meat.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Iscariot said:

Anyways! I have about 35 things of meat. 16 can get me four servings of hefty stew, but I can get 8 servings of normal stew if I just use 2 slots.

I also have some turnips I could add. Should I try to compact everything into one meal, or have multiple smaller meals in my crocks?

Typically what I do is try to make sure that each crock is completely full before sealing(each crock holds 4 servings) in order to get the most efficient use of crocks and storage space. When filling the crocks, I usually make meaty stew with a couple of vegetable options(two slots), or some berries(just one slot). Doing so allows me to make the most of a single crock by filling it with a meal of different nutrients rather than a single nutrient meal.

Now exactly what you choose to put in your stews is entirely up to you, on whether you want specific ingredients(such as leaving out parsnips if you don't like parsnips) or whether you just use whatever is available. Likewise, you might also opt to seal a crock with fewer than 4 servings, if you have multiple crocks and just need to store the food before it goes to waste.

[Never Jhonsen]

On 9/2/2025 at 6:59 PM, LadyWYT said:

I do is try to make sure that each crock is completely full before sealing(each crock holds 4 servings) in order to get the most efficient use of crocks and storage space

If you run two cooking pots at once, each with 6 portions and ingredients all matching AND in the same 4 slots as each other, then you can fill three crocks with that

My current home has 4 pits in the kitchen, and I'll bulk make 6 crocks worth of food at a time for winter storage. Usually porridge or stew, as I farm a lot of vegetables and grains. 

[Maelstrom]

Cooked food ALWAYS provides more calories than raw ones.   To add to @Michael Gates comment on turnips, cook the turnips before your consume them.  Also foraging for more food while out and about could yield other edibles, like grain that could further diversify your wintery culinary offferings.

[Professor Dragon]

Also, although this answers a question that wasn't asked: Farming!

Plant up some of those grain crops. In the first year it will keep you fed.
Later, farm cycles exponentially and food becomes trivial with an abundance of grain for animals or late mid game, bread trading for gears.

Finally, build a two high fence around your sheep, and cheese it with a slab or trapdoor on top, which you can use to fill a trough without getting "whanginated."

Edited September 4, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Maelstrom]

If terra preta is desired, use the undesired amounts of grain for compost.  Craft it into raw dough and let it rot.  Dough converts to rot on a one to one basis then 1 to 4 into compost.

Fences do not need to be two high.  Putting a slab or block on top of a fence may allow sheep and goats to escape their pen.

[LadyWYT]

Incidentally, in case anyone didn't know...eating hot food warms you up, and you can reheat a cookpot full of food as well. Reheating the food doesn't reset the spoilage timer, but it does seem to pause it, so long as the food stays hot.